Thinking back to the summer of 2009, Bao Kai's "Plants vs. Zombies" swept the world with its humorous and witty, imaginative plot and slightly nonsensical 2D textures, "Crooked than Crooked, Crooked Than Bab!" This demonic Dave zombie language was also out of the circle. At this point, the door of the diversified tower defense strategy game could not hide its smile and slowly opened.
Screenshot of the Plants vs. Zombies 2 game
Then in 2013, the launch of "Plants vs. Zombies 2" made the "Plants vs. Zombies" IP popularity to an unprecedented peak, and its classic nostalgia but no lack of innovative content became the most successful sequel to the series, with the launch of Baokai's "Plants vs. Zombies: Garden War", the second generation of works has gradually come to an end.
Baokai's ip mining has not stopped, and their much-anticipated "Plants vs. Zombies 3" (PVZ3) pre-release finally ushered in regional testing last year (released in the Philippines, Ireland and Romania). Perhaps in order to "break free of the shackles", meaning to create a different work from the previous two generations of "Plants vs. Zombies", Bao Kai has carried out a "facelift" innovation for this generation of games.
The first to be knifed is the game's drawing style, and then the UI and sunlight acquisition mechanism have been "hit" to varying degrees - plants and zombies have added new health bar displays, and the addition of energy slots has replaced the function of sunflowers to produce sunlight, will the addition of these new content really satisfy players? Sure enough, Bao Kai had to close the beta version in a state of criticism.
The first beta version of Plants vs. Zombies 3
The so-called "too hasty, things must be reversed" is very suitable for this work, eager to break through without taking into account the feelings of old players, so that it has lost the inherent characteristics and charm of the series IP.
After a year of retreat, on September 13 this year, Bokai and EA's Plants vs. Zombies 3 opened its second regional test in Australia and the Philippines, and for this test, Matt Townsend, EA Mobile's game director, said: "Since hearing feedback from players, we are back to what we were in our original form to ensure that we are planting a garden that every neighbor can be proud of. ”
The three-generation remake can be described as "back on track": the screen is back on the horizontal screen, and in order to be exquisite and take into account the classics, the development team for plants, zombies and props has also adopted three-tone two, and the sense of cheapness of the initial test mini-game has disappeared, and the taste of the past has returned.
What is obvious is that the wind rating of Plants vs. Zombies 3 has gradually improved with the return of the resource acquisition system (Sunflower), and more and more players have accepted the unique game mechanics and settings of the three-generation remake.
Plants vs. Zombies 3 player video
Fast-paced "Ice and Fire Dual Heavens" with new mechanics of the map
The story of Plants vs. Zombies 3 still revolves around the war between plants and zombies. Although the resource acquisition system has returned as desired, its "temperament" can be described as a big change - from the previous 50 solar system to a fixed solar system.
From counting to fixing, what kind of changes in the underlying resource acquisition system will bring to the tone of the whole game? Intuitively speaking, the counting method used in the previous game of the series shows that the number of resources is slightly redundant, the reason is that it is difficult for players to notice the impact of the number of sunshine that has been used and the number of remaining sunshine on the layout of subsequent battles when they continue to plant plants, which to some extent hinders the player's accurate calculation and planning strategy conception, and with the addition of the fixed system, it replaces the hundred or even thousand digit calculation with a simple ten-digit calculation, which greatly accelerates the player's calculation amount per unit time and reduces the scale of calculation. It lays a deep foundation for the game's fast-paced combat.
However, it is regrettable that the development team did not innovate enough for the plants of "Plants vs. Zombies 3", mercilessly saying that it is still eating the old bottom of the previous game, interestingly they seem to be aware of this, and actually deliberately slowed down the acquisition speed of new plants, each new plant acquisition interval is greater than or equal to 10 levels, and some even go straight to the 20 levels - as shown above, the acquisition interval between croton and lotus leaves, OK, 10 yuan can indeed take a long time.
Jokes are jokes, of course, it can not be ignored that the current work is still in the testing stage, the research and development of new plants and acquisition mechanisms and other projects may still be in operation, as for whether the future official version can be improved, we need to wait for good news.
In addition, the card mechanism that was once free to build a variety of Builds with plant cards disappeared, replaced by a rigid fixed card slot mechanism, and the most distressing thing for players is that the original 8 card slots have been seriously reduced in these three generations of remakes - only 5 card slots, it can be said that if the official version of this game is true, its play strategy and playability will inevitably be greatly reduced.
The terrain of Plants vs. Zombies 3 is refreshing, no longer stuck to the more fixed terrain settings of the previous game, especially in the pool level. As can be seen in the figure above, the distribution of pools is not uniform, making it difficult for zombie attacks to be targeted.
In addition to the richer variety of terrain, it is also given a "trap" setting, such as the pool in the picture above will also have a conveyor belt effect function as the game progresses, causing offensive problems for zombies while also testing the player's understanding of the placement of plants. This characteristic map setting provides more possibilities for players to complete levels, and how to use the water flow to "go with the flow" may become a key way for players to gain fun points.
However, players need to note that although the card slot is fixed and the card cannot be matched, in fact, the types of plants that the system automatically configures in each level are different, and the same is true for the map. In addition, the difficulty of the game levels is not fixed, generally speaking, small levels are not too difficult for the player, but if the player is skilled in operation and wins every battle, then the difficult and torturous levels may follow.
Whether it is from the fixed system of the resource collection system or from the fixed system of plant card distribution, rapid calculation, simplification of resources, and simplified card strategy arrangement have become the main colors of "Plants vs. Zombies 3", it can be said that the "short and fast" features of this game reveal its "fangs". Why is it set up this way, and why do you have to speed up the pace of the game?
Looking at the overall beta content, the development team seems to want this generation of works to transform into a small game category, weakening the strategy through the addition of various fixed mechanisms, thereby increasing the presence of game props, as shown above, the frozen peppers that once belonged to plants in the game have become item items with limited use times in Plants vs. Zombies 3, will the number of such limited items be replenished with the progress of the game, or purchased through player Krypton gold? It is possible, but it is not conclusive for the time being.
On the other hand, the development team pays more attention to the polishing of the characteristics and difficulty of the level to some extent, and the creative dynamic level and dynamic difficulty under the blessing of the breakthrough mechanism set to improve the player's promotion experience, at the same time, the development team may be more convenient to lay kryptonite points in the game, when the player can not pass the level normally, the payment system is likely to follow.
As far as the kryptonian system of the second generation of the series is concerned, the author is conservative and cautious about the kryptonian system of Plants vs. Zombies 3, but what is certain is that the variety of gameplay brought by its new and interesting map innovation and fusion resource collection new mechanism is likely to become a major feature of the game.
Achilles Heel - IP series tower defense theme innovation or reach the top
"Plants vs. Zombies 3" is gradually far away from the first generation of the player's eyes, although the style of painting has been repaired, but the classic content of the series of game versions has not been well inherited, although the game music produced by this generation is equally great, it seems to have no unique taste of the past, and the player always misses the old, right.
In fact, Baokai's drastic reform may not be what they are willing to do, the current tower defense game can be described as a big grasp, want to become the best in the competition, it is not difficult to make an impressive tower defense game: multiple fixed game design mechanisms include fixed maps, fixed positions, fixed moving routes, fixed turret attributes, fixed resource acquisition and victory and defeat judgment fixed or will make the development team in maintaining creative inspiration is particularly weak, the so-called Achilles heel is so, How to make its multiple fixed mechanism more fun may become an important topic for current and even future development teams to think about.
From a certain point of view, the "Plants vs. Zombies" series IP may be stuck in its own bottleneck period, as the saying goes, "trees move to death, people move to live", Baokai and EA's first attempt although bitter, but not broken, can this test become a stepping stone to its future success? Let's wait and see.
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